Blog - Page 3 of 40 - Shannon Von Eschen Photography

Easter, Eggs, + a longer-legged Eli

† Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; He has risen! -Luke 24:5-6 †

† HALLELUJAH! He is Risen Indeed! †

Twelve now. Twelve years have escaped the two of us as looking back on our annual Easter Egg Hunt in the trees. Me and E.

Every year, I wonder if he’ll want to do this again, and so far, he’s in until he’s 18! The sweet hat I had made for him from Etsy (that was ordered as a 3-6month size) has stretched beyond comprehension and has started to become fuzzy. Still, he wears it proudly. And yet those longer-than-life legs are taking up more space than they used to, and those ever-growing feet now wear Mama’s Converse. Yes, mine! What a wonder! But so too are our trees growing. So tall and lean, like our boy, towering towards our bluish-gray skies. The specific tree that we took Eli’s photo by all the prior years, was entirely taken out by a deer this last fall (can you even believe that?), and so we found a new one to stand next to.

…Sometimes things seem to stay the same forever, and yet, when you start truly looking, so much has changed…

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Citrus Inspired Easter Tablescape with Bare Root Flora

🍋 Colors are the Smiles of Nature. -Leigh Hunt 🍊

So get ready to SMILE your face off! Spring is such a joyful time of year. After the long dark days of winter, nothing could seem more refreshing than a table set with bright and beautiful citrus tones for a holiday that celebrates new life, new growth, and the return of light and warmth. We set our Easter table under an armful of blooming quince branches we’d hung. We laid a natural wood table with a gorgeous macramé runner from Anthropologie and set the table in textural tableware in shades of white and pale blue-green. For a dramatic centerpiece, we filled a terracotta roaster with all the best blooms of the season: Stunning ranunculus, sweet pea, roses, poppies, hellebores, French dianthus and lush, textural greens and accented with cut citrus fruits and sweet Easter eggs. We finished the table with darling little egg planters filled with fresh hellebore blooms. And our smiles were…huge.

– Robyn, Bare Root Flora

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Twenty

You know…I’m not sure how I’ll make it through this small notes to you right now. And I’m feeling kinda lucky that my fingertips don’t have their own tears since the ones in my eyes are already spilling onto the keyboard. It’s not a rarity for my mind to be preoccupied with you…but on days like this, I’m back to being a little girl who has the biggest crush on this one boy whose name is Jason. And just like that, I’m undone.

Today makes twenty. Twenty years of officially wearing your ring, taking your name, and waking up from a “nightmare” dream a few times a year that I’ve married the wrong person…only to wake up and hold you close because the man in my dreams is actually just you. Oh but truly, who does that? I suppose when you’re ten years old and you absolutely, without a doubt, think you’ve found your person already, and then it becomes a reality (only by the grace and miracles of God) do you do that. Oh yes: I do! I do that!

This morning, our precious boy made us breakfast in bed: pancakes and buttered toast. “I was going to make eggs,” he said, “but I wasn’t sure how to use the stove here.” On the counter of the kitchen he left a note for us both. It was so beautifully written, I could hardly make out the words through salt-filled eyes. His last sentence made my cheeks stain with tears: “Thank you guys for being such good parents…

Thank you for a good life. Love Eli.”

Trying to reflect back on everything we’ve done, experienced, traveled, seen, and survived through seems truly overwhelming. I have tens of thousands of photos of us and likely twice that in my own colorful memories, and yet…how can so much time have escaped us so fast? “Time flies when you’re having fun” it’s said, so is this truly why? I mean, it’s no secret that you and I have been buried before–underneath true sorrow and pain that’s swallowed us whole sometimes; and, yet, I swear to high heaven our joys have felt the same! Our valleys are dark and deep, but our mountains of joy are beautiful, peaceful, serene, bright, and full of the wonderful dance that life swings us through.

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